OCEANSIDE: City dumps plan to outsource street sweeping

A proposal to hire a private company to take over street sweeping from city workers was rejected by the Oceanside City Council in a 3-2 vote Wednesday.

The council, in a second 3-2 vote, approved a road plan with several controversial projects, including completing a missing link of Melrose Drive and building a freeway interchange at Rancho del Oro Drive and Highway 78.

Councilman Jack Feller, who cast the deciding vote on outsourcing street sweeping, said he wouldn't agree to outsource any more city services unless Mayor Jim Wood and the rest of the council first agree to give up their aides.

The mayor and each council member have an aide. Giving them up would save the city about $390,000 a year, Feller said.

"We will be leading by example and demonstrating that we, as a council, are part of the solution," Feller said. "If we could do that, I could support outsourcing."

Feller earlier this year cast the deciding vote to kill talk of hiring a private company to take over the city's two libraries.

City Manager Peter Weiss said the city already outsources a wide range of services, including tree trimming, harbor maintenance and some accounting functions.

Feller got no support for his proposal to get rid of the council aides but he joined Mayor Jim Wood and Councilwoman Esther Sanchez in voting to spend $783,000 to refurbish four city street-sweeping trucks rather than outsourcing the work.

"If you could see what I see, they work less than I do," Feller said during a break in the council meeting. "It is not right when we're talking about the other people when we could save $390,000 right off the top."

Feller said he would add the matter to the agenda for the next council meeting, although he said he expected the council to vote it down. He said the mayor and council could make do with one aide for everyone

Councilmen Jerry Kern and Gary Felien voted against refurbishing the truck. They said it would be cheaper to hire a private company for street sweeping.

Outsourcing street sweeping would save the city $76,566 a year over the five years of the proposed contract, according to figures from city maintenance and operations manager Kiel Koger.

Koger said keeping the street sweeping in-house would cost the city about $795,609 annually over five years compared to $719,043 annually to hire Cannon Pacific of San Marcos to do the work.

"That is a significant amount of money to me," Kern said.

"Everybody has to make tough choices to get through the financial situation we're in, and this is one small step in the right direction," Felien said.

Sanchez said street sweeping "is one area that does not make sense to outsource."

"We want to have a clean city," Sanchez said. She said the city also must keep its streets clean to comply with environmental regulations.

Will Holder, one of the four city street-sweepers who were at risk of losing their jobs, said the city would lose the "pride of ownership" he brings to the job.